The government consulted from 16 May to 8 August 2011 on its "modern workplaces" proposals on parental leave, flexible leave, equal pay audits, and changes to the working time regulations. The consultation documents are on the BIS website at tinyurl.com/896ojpt and the press release is at tinyurl.com/89kdkyh. The government's response is expected in early 2012.

Shared parental leave. Under proposals for a new system of shared parental leave - which would not be in effect before 2015 - mothers will be entitled to 18 weeks paid maternity leave around the time of the birth, to be taken in one block, and as at present fathers/partners will be entitled to two weeks ordinary paternity leave and pay at the time of the birth. In addition each parent will be entitled to four weeks paid leave, to be taken in the child's first year, and 30 weeks of additional parental leave will be available to either parent. Of these 30 weeks 17 will be paid. The 30 weeks can be broken into blocks between parents, and both parents could take the leave at the same time. However an employer could require an employee to take their leave in one continuous block, if agreement about the timing of the leave could not be reached. Employers would be able to ask staff to return for short periods to meet peaks in demand, or to require that leave is taken in one continuous block in order to meet business needs.

Under these proposals, the total time available for maternity/paternity leave would increase from 54 to 58 weeks.

Similar provisions would apply for same-sex couples and adopters.

Unpaid parental leave. At present, each parent is entitled to 13 weeks unpaid parental leave, to be taken before the child's fifth birthday, or 18 weeks until the child's 18th birthday if the child is disabled. It is proposed that this entitlement be extended to 18 weeks for all parents. This is expected to take effect from April 2012.

Antenatal appointments. The consultation includes a proposal giving fathers/partners the right to take unpaid leave to attend antenatal appointments.

Flexible leave. It is proposed that the right to request flexible working [see Flexible working to care for children] be extended to all employees who have been with their employer for 26 consecutive weeks, not just those who are parents or carers as at present. The current statutory procedure for flexible working requests would be replaced by a statutory code of practice for employers and a duty to consider requests reasonably, but there are no plans to alter the current eight business reasons for an employer to turn down a request.

At present employees can request flexible leave only once in a 12-month period. Under the proposals they would be able to make a further request within 12 months where the initial request was for a temporary arrangement.

Mandatory equal pay audit. An employment tribunal that has found an employer to have discriminated on the basis of gender in relation to pay will order the employer to conduct a pay audit and publish the results, except in specific circumstances such as where an audit has already been carried out in the past three years.

Working time regulations. The modern workplaces consultation also included proposals to amend the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) so that annual leave entitlements can be rescheduled, and carried over to the next leave year, when a worker falls ill during planned annual leave. This would be limited to the four weeks of Working Time Directive leave. The government also intends to amend the WTR to allow the carry-over of annual leave due to maternity, paternity, parental or adoption leave - this will include the full 5.6 weeks of leave entitlement per year.

The consultation also sought views on giving businesses greater flexibility around annual leave, by allowing them to buy out untaken leave or to defer taking leave until the first six months of the following leave year where there are justifiable business grounds. These provisions would apply only to the 1.6 weeks of domestic statutory leave.

It is expected that these proposals will take effect from April 2012.

Further information on legal updates for voluntary organisations can be found at http://www.sandy-a.co.uk/legal.htm 

Source: Sandy Adirondack